


Falling

by Jenson_Todd41



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: F/M, I know the title is awful but my insomnia addled brain couldn't do any better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-13
Updated: 2015-08-13
Packaged: 2018-04-14 11:01:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4562037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenson_Todd41/pseuds/Jenson_Todd41
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>First posted on Motorskink, finally got round to uploading here</p>
    </blockquote>





	Falling

**Author's Note:**

> First posted on Motorskink, finally got round to uploading here

“She doesn't know does she?”  
To anyone in the restaurant they would just look like two friends, albeit two friends having a very serious discussion, and that was the way they wanted it to be. This was the end of a saga that had started almost a year before.

When the meeting ended Claire very politely tried to stifle a yawn.  
“I don't know how you do that every week, it would kill me with boredom.” Toto said  
“They aren't usually that bad.” He gave her a sceptical look. “Honest, and I did get something useful done.” She showed him her notepad, on which she had written 'milk, loo roll, toothpaste, lightbulbs' he looked rather confused. “Shopping list. Don't worry they'll email me the important bits.”  
“So that was a complete waste of everyone's time?”  
“Pretty much, what are you doing for dinner? I can't stand the thought of another night of room service on my own.”  
“I'll ask at reception about places to eat” They agreed to meet in the hotel bar at 7.

The restaurant they chose was full of similarly inhibited colleagues, as at the weekend it was clearly intended for more romantic purposes, but during the week kept going by being the only reasonably priced place in the area that did more than burgers and chips. The atmosphere stilted all attempts at non-work based conversation, so they agreed to a drink in the hotel bar, unfortunately it turned out to be even more funereal than the restaurant, so decided to get a bottle of wine from the bar and see if there was anything worth watching in the hotels' selection of films.  
“I'll just be a couple of minutes while I change into something more comfortable.” This comment was met with a raised eyebrow. “I meant jeans and a t shirt.” His single raised eyebrow was met with her pair that said 'whatever you are thinking, don't.' A few minutes later when she knocked at the door he knew that comfortable, really meant comfortable, her t-shirt would have been big on him, and from the way it was crumpled he suspected that she slept in it, it was hard not to let his mind wander to the other side of the wall, her alone in bed, the shirt riding up a little. Thankfully as he thought this he had managed to let her in to the room, and even open and pour the wine, of which he now took a large gulp as to be able to speak.

As neither of them could decide on a film to watch, they decided to have CNN on quietly in the background, and just talk, subconsciously they had made their way closer to the centre of the bed, in fact they were almost touching, from there it was a simple comment that he can't remember that set the whole thing in motion, just a flash of her smile and all his will dissolved. By this time they had both had a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, and were making their way slowly down the bottle, far from drunk, but having had just enough to be spontaneous.  
“I like your smile, I just realised today, but I do.”  
“So you mean my bored, when will this be over smile?” She felt him edge a little closer.  
“No, that's what made me realise.” He moved ever so slightly again and rested his hand on her arm. “I missed it.” He slid his hand up her arm slowly, causing her to shudder, and she recognised the look in his eyes, if not in his, but from general experience.  
“We shouldn't.”  
“No, we shouldn't” He replied in a slightly sarcastic tone. “But you want to, don't you?”  
“What makes you say that?”  
“You would have left by now, I'm not a meeting, you don't have to stay.” He took his hand off her arm, and put it on her neck and then gave her a brief kiss. “Are you still sure we shouldn't?”  
“Less so.” She took the initiative to kiss him this time. By the time his hands had slid under her top all thoughts of stopping him had gone out of the window.  
“I'm really sure we should now.” She said breathlessly and started to undo his shirt.

Claire was doizng lightly when she was woken by Toto's snoring and his phone vibrating against the table across the room. She didn't know precisely what time it was, but she knew it was too late to be in his room, she got out of the bed without disturbing him, and checked the time on his phone as she collected her clothes.  
“Shit, shit, shit.” She whispered to herself, clearly a little louder than she intended as when she turned round Toto was sat up in the bed.  
“What's wrong?”  
“I have to get back to my room, it's 1am and I have an alarm call for 6 cos I've got an early flight, so go and check whether the coast is clear.”  
“Why me?”  
“It's your room and I need to get dressed.” 

They barley saw each other for the next couple of weeks, in fact the next time they spent any meaningful time together was at her surprise birthday party.  
“Happy birthday.” Toto said handing her a present and kissing her on the cheek, even though it was out of politeness, the fact that he was kissing her, not only in public, but in front of his wife sent a shiver down her spine. He managed to find a moment where she wasn't being given a drink, or wished a happy birthday, or deep in conversation.  
“I've found a room, next to the emergency exit and the men's toilets, see you in 5 minutes.” He whispered in her ear. When she got to the room (and discovered it was actually a cupboard) he seemed annoyed that she was a bit late.  
“Where were you, we will be missed in there.”  
“I was getting someone to replace the loo roll in the ladies.”  
“I thought that was your excuse.”  
“It is but there wasn't any in there.”

When she got back to the party she was cornered by Bruno.  
“Where have you been, it's time to cut the cake, and Jenson is getting grumpy.”  
“I was trying to find someone to replace the loo roll in the ladies.” Susie happened to walk past at that moment.  
“Oh good, I was wondering when it would be done, also did you pass Toto on your travels, he's been gone ages.”  
“Yes, he was on the phone, it looked rather important.” She managed to say before literally being dragged off by Bruno. After blowing out the candles she managed to dodge the traditional slice intended to hit her by ducking, and Pastor looked very unimpressed when it hit him instead. The cry of 'Speech, speech, speech' began to rise from the floor.  
“Thanks all for coming, and let's get back to the most important thing, the drinking.” This raised a massive cheer.

Despite the fact that the party was in her honour, she left not much longer having developed a headache early on. After taking a couple of paracetamol, and turning the lights down as low as they would go, she decided that a hot bath might help ease it. She had just started to run it when there was a loud banging on her door, every knock making her head throb more. She turned the taps off and grabbed the dressing gown to make herself decent. When she opened the door she was confronted by a very drunk Toto.  
“I need you.” He slurred. She helped him across the room and went to make him a cup of coffee, as he was in no fit state to get back to his room alone. The coffee had sobered him up a little after a few minutes, so she decided to ask which room he was in.  
“I don't know”  
“Where is your key?” At first he attempted to giver his car keys, but eventually found the right one (thankfully the hotel still had proper keys with the room numbers on) “That's just down the hall, let's get you back to where you belong.” She put his unsteady arm around her shoulders and helped him down the corridor. They made it unscathed despite his attempts to steer them into the walls, despite having the key Claire felt it was better to explain why she was in her dressing gown, and knocked tentatively at the door (she knew Susie was in she had left about the same time). There was a slight delay before the door opened.  
“Sorry to wake you, but I believe he belongs to you.”  
“Thanks.” Susie's expression was rather puzzled.  
“He was determined to break down my door as he was convinced it was his.”

Once again timing conspired against them (and the summer break) so that they didn't see each other again until Spa, in fact they met at the hotel check in desk.  
“Sir, you are in room 221, and madam in 222, there is a connecting door, if good for you, we can give you the key.” They looked at each other for a moment, to look like they were thinking about it, she even nodded at him for the benefit of the reception staff.  
“I think it will be good for us.” He replied before they headed off to their rooms.

“Why do people keep asking me if I know where I am going?” Toto asked over lunch.  
“What do you remember of my party?” He looked distinctly confused at the question.  
“Not much” he replied in his normal voice, but he lowered it before continuing “I do remember the cupboard.”  
“As do I, shelves digging in your back is painful, whatever the distraction” she replied in a similarly low voice, before returning to normal volume “you tried to break down my door convinced it was yours.” The person who knew about the room confusion (they never discovered who it was, but suspected it was Susie) clearly had a sense of humour as Claire found a dressing down draped over her preferred chair in the meeting she had that afternoon.

They finally had an evening where they could be together on Saturday night and almost intimidately the connecting door was put to good use as Claire was barley in the room when there was a knock at the door.  
“You left this in the motorhome.” Bruno said as he handed Toto's phone over. “It's rung quite a few times.”  
“Thanks, I did wonder where I had left it.”

After dealing with the missed calls, most of them were from his mum and he could hardly ignore those, he rang next door to let Claire know she could come back in.  
“What took you so long?”  
“I left my phone at the track, and mum had rung me.” He had started undoing the belt of her dressing gown when there was another knock at the door, she didn't have time to get to the connecting door, or even the bathroom when he started to open the door so had to hide in the large wardrobe.  
“Steak frites and the chocolate cheesecake.”  
“I didn't order anything.” The young man looked confused.  
“I have this order for room 272”  
“This is room 222”  
“Sorry to have disturbed you, have a good night.”  
“Who was that?” She asked as he undid the belt.  
“A lost room service person.” His voice trailed off at the end of the sentence as he took in the sight of her in her barley there lingerie, he slid the gown off her arms and tossed it behind him, not caring that he nearly knocked the TV off it's stand. He went to undo her bra but she stopped him.  
“You are wearing far too much, that shirt is doing nothing for you, it has to come off.” She helped him unbutton it by starting at the bottom and meeting him in the middle. “That's a good start, but those trousers aren't helping, they need to go too.” When she had decided that he was suitably undressed he attempted to undo her bra, attempted being the word as it seemed to take him rather a long time.  
“What is it with men and bras they really aren't that hard to undo, surely proof that the female is the superior.” For this she got a stare that lasted all of 5 seconds as she slid her hands up his back and pulled him down for a kiss. The next day they were both embarrassed and proud when they caught a fleeting comment from a passing guest 'I don't know who's in room 222 in our hotel, but they seemed to be having a good time, I almost complained to the manager'.

They continued to sneak around at the next few races, and were almost caught on a couple of occasions, but they had learned their lesson after Spa and tried to keep the noise down. When they got to Korea no sneaking was needed, due to a mix up at the hotel Toto's room had been double booked, and the other guests had already checked in, so he spent a frantic hour ringing around to see if anyone from the team had space on the floor, or even better a sofa, but he had no luck and was resigned to sleeping in the hospitatlity when he decided he needed to eat, and saw Claire across the cafe.  
“Only just arrived?” she asked, motioning to his bags.  
“No, double booking at the hotel, trying to find a floor to sleep on.”  
“I have a sofa in my room, be the perfect cover, but I would clear it with, you know who first, she might be a bit suspicious after my party.”

“She's fine with it, but asked me to warn you that I tend to talk in my sleep.” Unfortunately the story about them sharing a room got out, so they were asked about it in every interview, and took to making things up about each other, by then of the weekend Toto not only talked in his sleep, but had taken to sleepwalking, Claire snored, and it sounded like a car with a cracked exhaust. That weekend was the beginning of the end for them, though she didn't know it, he had a meeting at Mercedes and they were definitely interested at having him at the team. This is where his expertise at sneaking around paid off, being able to go to meetings at the team without arousing suspicion.

He was working on a draft of his letter of resignation a week or so later when he heard a familiar series of knocks on his office door.  
“Come in.” It was Claire, she had been working late on a dull contract and could tell from the intranet that he was still in the building, in fact they were the only people in the building. She told him this with badly disguised mischief in her voice. Little did they know that they were not the only people still there. Valtteri was making his way out of the building when he noticed the dull glow coming from Toto's office, he did have a very minor dicusussion with him and he thought he may as well get it out of the way, when as he was about to knock he heard a slightly muffled shout. 'fuck, Claire fuck' and realised what he needed to ask could wait.

By the time of the Christmas party the rumour mill about Toto's future at the team was in full swing, along with speculation as to why it was, as always with gossip like this it got distorted, though the closest anyone to something true was that he was found with Valtteri in a compromising position on his desk, which both of them dismissed as ludicrous. At the party itself there was the usual smattering of antlers, Santa hats and novelty jumpers. There was a quieter part of the room where the people who just wanted to have a quiet conversation could gather, unfortunately this also made it rather busy and therefore the target of at least 3 people with mistletoe. A group were talking about their plans for the big day when some of the mistletoe appeared and the group had magically melted away leaving just Claire and Toto with the spotlight on them and looking very uncomfortable, they exchanged the briefest of pecks on the lips and the spotlight went off to find somone else. At least at this party Claire was relieved that she didn't have to dance, and spent the evening hanging around the fringes of the dancefloor and moving any time dancing was mentioned, That was until a conga line was started and she felt a pair of hands on her hips, and a familiar voice telling her just to have fun.

The first day back after the Christmas break was, as always, a subdued affair, with everyone getting back in to their routines after a rare week or so not needing to think about work. Claire was sorting through her emails, even her private work account sometimes got spammed, when she got a new message, as it was on the internal system she guessed it was either the menu for the week (which came in around this time) or a meeting that was of no interest to her and was just sent to everyone, she opened it not expecting anything of interest. 'Are you free for dinner tonight, I have news.' It was from Toto. She spent the day trying to work out what it could mean.

They made polite small talk whilst they decided and ordered.  
“So what's this news?” Claire suddenly had a horror struck expression on her face. “She doesn't know does she?”  
“No, she doesn't, I'm leaving the team, I'm going to Mercedes.”  
“Is this because of me?”  
“No, they just offered me a promotion, I leave at the end of the month, it's being announced tomorrow, I thought you deserved to know first.” The meal passed in a slightly frosty atmosphere, and they went their separate ways trying to work out what the other had meant to them, other than just the sex.

At testing and the first couple of races there was still a frosty atmosphere between them on the rare occasions that they were away from the cameras, but that eventually changed and by Monaco Claire was bold enough to go down to Mercedes to congratulate Nico on his win, although she was from a rival they were hardly going to get any race winning secret out of here, she hated the fact, and longed for a return to the glory days but she knew it to be true. She only had to spend a minute or two standing awkwardly with a group of journalists trying to get any news of the team before Nico came over.  
“Claire, what I surprise, I did not expect to see you here.”  
“As if I wasn't going to come and see you, well done.”  
“Thank you.”  
“Your dad must be proud of you.”  
“For sure, he is acting like he won the race, it was great to see you but I have to go.” She understood, the winner is always in demand. She was leaving when Toto came over.  
“Are you trying to steal our race winning secrets?”  
“Of course not, I came to see our Nico.”  
“Your Nico?”  
“Yes, you should know how much he is still loved at the team, I was only passing by I'd better get back.” Unbeknownst to both of them Susie was stood chatting to a couple of the mechanics when she happened to notice out of the corner of her eye that her husband and Claire seemed to be stood rather close to each other and there was something suspicious about the way she kept possessively touching his arm, the final straw was how lingering their goodbye kiss was definitely more lingering than was polite, she had heard the rumours, there are always rumours, but with this one there seemed to be that bit of truth and made a mental note to have a word with him later.


End file.
